In just a month, the Oregon Ducks will begin the 2023 football season taking on Portland State at home in Autzen Stadium.
But head coach Dan Lanning has plenty of work to do before his second Duck squad will be ready to face an opponent and that began Wednesday.
Oregon welcomed in veterans and a lot of highly-touted newcomers as camp will be utilized not only to prepare for the season but to gel as a unit as quickly as possible.
The Ducks expect the veterans to help play a major role in ensuring that occurs, according to Lanning.
“Your veterans have to serve as some of your coaches right? They have to help guys and help bring guys along too and that’s certainly an expectation for us that these guys that have been through this, they gotta be all pull some young guys along with them,” he said. “And the guys that are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, they got to figure out where we’re going. And that’s a process but they’re doing a good job of picking that up.”
On Day 1, there weren’t a lot of specifics thrown in there.
It was mainly just getting out on the field and getting in those reps. Oregon is using a new ball-throwing machine called the Monarch Seeker in order for the receivers and the defensive backs to get as many reps in as humanly possible. It also saves some of the quarterbacks’ arms, as well.
“You want to create game reps” explained Lanning.
“We haven’t had it (the machine) long enough to be able to tell you a ton, but they want to create game reps. We get as many reps as we can possibly get. That’s something that allows us to hit quick effective reps that you know the ball is going to be in a certain location you can execute at a high level.”
The Ducks have a lot of quality receivers on the field and on the sideline so the number of reps each player gets now can only help them down the road. Players such as Troy Franklin and Kris Hutson have been through this before, but newcomers such as Traeshon Holden and Tez Johnson are expected to play pivotal roles early and often for the 2023 Ducks.
They may be new to Oregon, but this isn’t their first rodeo.
“We have the expectation for anybody who can come in and be able to play,” Lanning said.
“It’s certainly easier for a guy that has experience but we have some young guys too that they have the resources in front of them to execute at a high level if they learn it, they’re going to help us.”
DAN LANNING DISCUSSES PRACTICE NO. 1